Nine
by Darksknight
Summary: Nine days, nine lives. Rangiku thought she was ready for the future. She was wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Guess who's decided to make a little summer-time fic? (If you guessed me, that would be 100% correct.) In celibration of actually having a moment to myself, I've decided to start another fic. It will update once a day and I will post until it's finished. (Unlike all my other half-done fics that I've just kind of left on their own... sorry about them.) So, I hope everyone enjoys the sudden attack of almost-AU UNEDITED ginran. Good luck to anyone who hasn't taken their finals yet!

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_Nine days, nine lives._..

Rangiku is very deeply connected to cats. She adopted a cat when she was young. That cat had passed away- bless her white furry soul- and then she had taken in two other strays without Gin's knowledge. She's always loved the animal, and so she was understandably pleased to find her soul slayer manifested into a cat- an ash cat.

So one could say Rangiku was some-what connected to the number nine. Nine lives for the neko, as it went. Nine times she had sprained her right ankle, nine times had she gotten into a bar fight with another woman, nine times she'd failed a mission. Nine times she had woken up thinking Gin was alive after he died.

And so, nine months after Gin was good and gone, she found herself staring Unohana Retsu in the face, lips pressed into a thin line as she nodded.

"If you're completely sure," The captain said lightly, smiling. "Then you would make a very nice candidate, Matsumoto-san. It's a dangerous mission, but I am sure of your abilities."

She nodded lightly, sort of distracted. "Yeah. Give me the basic run-down one more time before I leave."

"Very well then." Unohana sat down in her chair, still smiling pleasantly. "You will go twenty seven years forward- hardly the blink on an eye for someone like us, but a bit of a strain on the body to take all at once. You should be fine, but then, you know all the risks." She laughed softly.

"Mm-hm. And then?"

"You will have thirteen days while you're there. Once you find the object, keep it on you. On the final day you will be taken back here. It will be similar to suddenly stepping into a sikimon… Is that all you need?"

She looked at the drawing of the object- it looked like a silver cat about the size of a watermelon. There was a gold symbol in the center of the object. "What is the thing again?"

"On of squad twelves' very important… things." She laughed softly again. She clearly didn't care for squad twelve. "It malfunctioned. Usually it keeps things in an isolated time barrier, but it somehow ended up in the human realm many years in the future."

"Okay."

"Remember, stay away from soul society- we don't need you messing up any affairs that may be according in that time window. Please stay in the human realm, and only perform shinigami activities if it's completely necessary."

Rangiku nodded. "I'm ready."

Unohana stood, taking a needle full of a clear serum from the counter, tapping it to free any trapped bubbles of air inside. "In that case, lay down and relax. Once you're asleep we'll put you through the sikimon. You'll return to this time tomorrow."

"I'm ready." She said.

As the needle slid into her arm, she closed her eyes. She thought she was ready for the future.

She was not.


	2. Chapter 2

You're all probably noticing I'm breaking my update-once-a-day promise. I'm finding it harder than I expected to get to any sort of computer, so updates may not be out as regularly as I hoped. Sorry for that- and thank you for all the reviews! I promise to get around to replying later, but as it is I barely have time to write. Enjoy!

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When Rangiku opened her eyes, she first took survey of herself. Being an alcoholic made her wary of waking up without clothing, but to her satisfaction she found she was wearing a cute brown skirt, white flats, and a cream tank top. She was further gladdened to find she was still wearing her silver necklace, which was trapped under her long hair.

_Very long…_

She sat up and ran a hand through her hair, frowning when she found it went down to her hips. It would be completely unmanageable until she got it cut, but luckily she had plenty of money with her.

She'd taken a couple of bags through with her. Clothing, toiletries, and a tent to set up. While she wasn't big on camping it would be nice to finally get some time to herself. Well over a week- thirteen days.

It almost didn't feel like enough, but at the same time, she was already starting to regret her decision as she realized that she was in the middle of a forest. She could see the road a while ahead, and she had materials to create a boundary around her and make herself undetectable by the rest of the world, but she wasn't sure how far away the town was.

With a sigh, she got to work setting up her tent, glad that at least the grass was soft and the sky was blue- no rain to ruin her night or make setting up difficult. She was sure that it would have been difficult to set the tent up if she hadn't done it so many times before, but as it was she had it up in a good ten minutes or so.

"Well…" She stuffed some cash into her skirt pocket- yes, praise, the skirt had pockets- and looked out at the road. "I may as well start looking."

Unohana said that the little silver time cat would be somewhere in the neighboring town- it was just over four miles from where she would be camping out. She was _not_ excited about walking five miles every day to search the town. Hopefully, she would miraculously find the silver cat on her first day.

"The sun _is_ just starting to rise." She reasoned. "So I have a good while to find it." For example, in a stylist's shop. Or a restaurant that served those cute little margaritas with the umbrellas in them. Or maybe just a liquor store- she needed to stock up for the 'not quiet a week but close' that she would be spending in the future.

She started down the road carefully, looking out for any human cars. Things hadn't changed very much- the road looked a little different, and the one car that did past her was a little changed. But other than that, things looked as they always had.

She wished she could go see a thirty-something year old Inoue. That would have been incredible- same with Kurosaki and the rest. She knew she couldn't- she wasn't even in the right town- but she still couldn't help but smile knowing they were out there, somewhere.

_I wonder what everyone else looks like. Probably the same. Different haircuts, maybe. And Ichigo probably unlocked eighteen more hidden talents or something like that. Maybe he married Rukia by now. I wonder how that would go- one living soul and one dead soul united… well, technically, he's both. He's_ everything _that there is._

She looked up at a passing car, giving a small wave. _I should have brought a soul candy in case of an emergency._ She reasoned. _I can get one if I order from Urahara- he'll have it here before the day is over. But then, he'll ask questions and I'm not supposed to mess around with the time line. Looks like I'll have to just leave my dumb body on the ground or something if anything happens._

When Rangiku made it to the town, things were already in high-gear. The small city wasn't nearly as big as Katakura, but it wasn't going to be easy to search the entire place for one silver cat. She'd be lucky if she found it that day- that much was clear.

Before she got her hair cut, Rangiku went out for breakfast. She bought food from a cute little café that served sandwiches cut without the crust and cucumber water. It was strange, but not unpleasant.

She stopped in a couple of shops, picked up a couple of bags, and then before she knew it lunch rolled around. So she off the hair cut yet again and made her way to another restaurant to eat shrimp noodles for lunch. She was starting to get discouraged, then, as she realized how enormous the task before her was. She hadn't the slightest clue where to start looking for the object. What if someone had found it and taken it home? She couldn't investigate each and every house-hold. What if someone sold it to another town?

But then, Unohana would have found out if it was going out of the area. Or squad twelve- whoever it was that tracked the object down to begin with.

Her best bet was to find it in a store. Unohana had said it moved a month before and that it has stayed since then. So someone had most likely taken it to display in a shop or something. She was just praying it _wasn't_ in a house, lord, that would be bad.

After lunch she finally got around to getting her hair chopped off at her shoulders. Half-way between her younger self's look and her older self's look, she liked that it was light and, well, cute.

Once she finished up there she popped into every shop on the way to the restaurant closest to the edge of town so that she could stop and get breakfast on the way out. No luck, she didn't find a single thing. She had Udon for dinner and then made her way back to her tent with aching feet.

She dreamt of Gin that night.

She dreamed that he was at her side out in front of the Kuchiki mansion, the two of them staring into the noble's koi pond. Gin's eyes followed the only white koi in the pond. Rangiku's eyes followed his movement, not the fish.

He whispered, "See there, Ran? Tha' white one don't mess with anyone. He just goes 'bout his own business. But he's real sweet on that little orange one over there, he's always swimming in the way of fish tryen' ta' get ta' her. I like 'im. He's got character."

For some reason, in the dream, she didn't realize what Gin was talking about.

She was too interested in the shape of his mouth, and the ridges of his collar bones.

She said, "I like him too." Not realizing exactly what she was saying.

"Ya' shouldn't." Gin mused. "Look there- he just attacked that lil' yella' one. He's real mean, Ran. Only cares 'bout 'imself and the orange one."

She shrugged. "I like him. He's just protective."

He laughed. "Don't think you'd like it to much if it was real life and you were her."

"How do you know?"

"Trus' me." His grin fell. "You wouldn't like it… I know… I know."


	3. Chapter 3

p class="MsoNormal"The second day went as the first. As the hours crawled by her feet ached more and more, and she found herself doubtful that she'd ever find the damned cat. She stopped in a bar once and wasted two hours, then she picked up sake for her little set-up in the woods, and then because she could she got a couple more clothes. She hoped they would last,  
crossing back over into the past./p 


End file.
